Saban: NFL draft evals impacted Alabama chemistry at end

Two Auburn fans who live in Birmingham showed up at the 2015 SEC Media Days wearing Ohio State national championship T-shirts.

The truth is, Alabama didn’t need the reminder. The Tide outlasted Auburn in the Iron Bowl, walloped Missouri in the second half of the SEC championship game then fell apart against Ohio State in the playoff semifinal.

Tide senior linebacker Reggie Ragland has a different take. “We felt we didn’t have the necessary film on him. We’ve not moved the date that a player has to declare”.

Nick Saban likes to use the podium at SEC Media Days as somewhat of a bully pulpit to preach on a couple issues most years. We did not finish the season the way we wanted past year in terms of the way we played.

Sounds like Alabama has been making excuses for quite some time now.

Another fan we ran into was on a mission – get a miniature Bama helmet signed for his girlfriend by Alabama head coach Nick Saban.

“My story is going to end well because I’m going to give my all to my education and to my team”, Taylor said. Excited to play us. We had six guys in that situation this past year and 11 the year before. I don’t second-guess anything that we did.

Since Alabama was unable to claim the national title last season, Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban chose to tout some of the other successes of the program. “I wasn’t all that upset about it”, Saban said in Hoover, Ala.

The National Football League Draft: This is another one he brought up himself first, saying he thought that some of his players played not to get hurt during the Sugar Bowl because they had gotten their Draft evaluations during Bowl practice.

SEC media days come to a close on Thursday with the final three teams. You should be Alabama and be SEC.’ Nah, we’re Big Ten. When it came up later during questions, he stated those early draft evals affected his team’s chemistry and campaigned for pushing them back until after the championship game. “We’re talking about a young person who has to deal with a lot. That was a good pickup by them”.

No one knows who will be the Tide’s starting quarterback against Wisconsin, but center Ryan Kelly says he’s trying to mold them.

Still, if Alabama football is going to return to the top, it can’t fall back on what it is or once was. When asked about it again later, he said that he’s had to adapt his method to combat fast paced attacks. I still love what I do and I’m involved in what we do.

Saban didn’t arrive to media day prepared to praise the champs, however.

15 for ’15:CFB 24/7 counts down the best of what college football has to offer in varying categories for 2015. To represent the team in the right way, I’m just shoot and blessed to be here.

Quarterback Brandon Allen recently picked up what he thinks is a valuable drill from Peyton and Eli Manning while attending the Manning Passing Academy. “That’s a throw a lot of times you throw it short or you lob it and it gets picked off”, Allen said.

Could it be? Could one of the most competitive coaches in America, a man that will turn 64 on Halloween, suddenly be a kinder, gentler coach? Saban’s adjustment plan includes finding ways to build endurance into a no-huddle offense that added fatigue down the stretch a year ago. Coach Gary Pinkel said he doesn’t pay attention to preseason projections. The only route to reach a recruit was the one-on-one communication allowed between the coaching staff and high school players during the NCAA-mandated contact calendar.